Job and training help for western Alaska's storm-displaced residents

Months after severe storms and the remnants of Typhoon Halong tore through western Alaska last October — flooding communities, destroying homes, and forcing residents from the coast — many of those displaced are still piecing their lives back together. Among them are subsistence and commercial fishers whose livelihoods the storms upended. Now the state has added another kind of help: a set of employment and training resources aimed at getting displaced workers back on their feet.

The Department of Labor and Workforce Development has pulled together unemployment help, job-center services, training, and support for workers with disabilities in one place, meant to reach the fishers and other coastal residents whose work was disrupted.

It's one thread in a wider recovery effort that has grown since the storms, with state agencies, tribal organizations like the Association of Village Council Presidents, and relief funds all working alongside one another — much of it community-led, reaching beyond state programs. The Alaska Community Foundation's Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund, created after the storms, is helping with everything from food security and mental health to rebuilding damaged infrastructure — the long, slow work of recovery that continues well after the water recedes.